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How international terrorism is making the world a more dangerous place

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How international terrorism is making the world a more dangerous place

29.11.2015 21:11

The war with the Islamic state more and more resembles WWIII. ISIL, in response to air bombing throw bombs on the ground and often hit innocent people who, according to ISIL's plans, are to rebel and influence their own governments. In addition, the death of the innocent always gets more publicity than details of the fallen on the battlefield. This is the essence of terror, which is not an invention of modern times.

Minsk has streets named after terrorists. Social Revolutionary Pulikhov 100 years ago made an attempt on the governor of Minsk and was executed. Or, for example, Khalturin: the explosion in the Winter Palace (long before the storming of the same palace by Bolsheviks) was to kill Emperor Alexander II (Romanov).

The main thing in terror is not just to remove an unwanted person but to cause consternation among observers and paralyze the will of rulers. This is why the media, not weapons or bombs, are the main instrument of terror.

Alexander Chelyadinsky, doctor of historical sciences, professor of the Faculty of International Relations, the Belarusian State University:Even in official United Nations documents, the documents of the United States or NATO there are different interpretations of this concept. The concept "international terrorism" is mainly used by representatives of Western countries. A broad interpretation of this concept causes protest. For example, struggle for national freedom and independence.

Over 120 people died in the recent Paris attacks. Roughly the same number is killed in accidents in France during only 10 days and the same number dies of smoking in 24 hours! But either cigarettes or cars don't cause such hysteria.

It turns out that terror is political thuggery to which the front pages of many major newspapers are dedicated. A terrorist achieves his or her goal only after they are given the right to speak and the massacre they caused is shown on TV 24 hours a day.

The Ismaili sect are direct ancestors of the Islamic state. Incidentally, the ruins of the famous Old Man of the Mountain lie in the lands of Syria, which is now controlled by ISIL militants. The old man gave his students cannabis and sent them to execute crusader lords.

Fear was present back then too but it is not universal. Terrorism in the modern sense of the word was born in the XIX century in the theories of Prince Kropotkin: direct violent actions of single persons will influence policies and even fates of whole states if such violence is competently organized and made systematic. Anarchists kept at bay Europe and America for the entire second half of the XIX century. It is they who killed President Carnot of France, the US President McKinley, King Umberto of Italy and Prime Minister of Spain Canova.

By the second half of the XX century, people forgot about anarchists but note that it is still ultra-left who are responsible for most of the attacks - in Greece, Colombia and the Basque Country. Nationalists are far behind them in this respect. Religious fanatics have only recently seriously manifested themselves: Taliban, ISIL and Al-Qaeda.

Alexander Ivanovsky, political analyst:International terrorism is gaining strength. The political source was, I would say, an attempt to destabilize entire regions. These regions are in Asia and Africa. And attempts with so-called "good" intentions to rectify the situation for the better have led to that huge territorial spaces being beyond the control of the current form of self-organization of people - the state.

The archive of the global database on terrorism contains data on 140,000 crimes committed over the last 45 years. Of course some of them are not serious but their map impresses (watch video).

In fact our world in recent years has become neither more dangerous nor bloodier. ISIL cannot be compared to Khmer Rouge and the Iraqi war does not compare to Vietnam in terms of intensity of battles.

Although the trend in any case is very sad: we are witnessing the world becoming more dangerous and less free.